Economy

By independence, they are referring to the Fed's ability to greatly impact the economy with virtually no meaningful oversight. We only recently learned that the bankers at the Fed were able to use the latest financial crisis to bail out Wall Street cronies and foreign central banks with billions of dollars that were created and wasted, instead of appropriated and voted on by representatives of the people. The Fed and its supporters in Congress vehemently fought even this small bit of transparency and without this one-time provision in the financial reform act forcing disclosure, we would still not have this information. Indeed, we are in the dark on so much of what the Fed has done. This is extremely dangerous for our country, yet this power and secrecy is defended as some kind of public good, which is patently ridiculous.

Last year, the Dollar didn't pop 81.50 until March, when we were already recovering from the market dip. This morning, the Dollar is already drifting over 81.50 and looks like it may head higher, as the Euro is testing it's lowest levels ($1.28) since early September, when we were having a bit of a rough patch in the market. Since then, the Euro was up 10% and the US markets went up 10% (what a coincidence!) but now the Euro is back down 10% and the TradeBots are working overtime just to keep us on track. Who will break first?

Unlike some previous natural disasters, which affected a smaller geographic area and a narrow range of foods, many vegetables are likely to be affected. In 2006, Cyclone Larry caused a spike in banana prices and this alone helped to lift the overall inflation rate. "I think this will actually dampen discretionary spending during this period," said ANZ head of Australian economics Katie Dean, referring to spending across the entire economy.

In what may one day be heralded as the formal proposal that proverbially started it all, the Commonwealth of Virginia introduced House Resolution No. 557 to establish a joint subcommittee to "to study whether the Commonwealth should adopt a currency to serve as an alternative to the currency distributed by the Federal Reserve System in the event of a major breakdown of the Federal Reserve System." In other words, Virginia will study the fallback plan of a "timely adoption of an alternative sound currency that the Commonwealth's government and citizens may employ without delay in the event of the destruction of the Federal Reserve System's currency" and avoid or "at least mitigate many of the economic, social, and political shocks to be expected to arise from hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System."

The bank's refusal to be drawn further has left Belgium fending for itself as an escalating constitutional crisis pushes yields on its 10-year bonds to a post-euro record of 4.27pc. The country has not had a government since Flemish separatists emerged as the biggest party in elections seven months ago. Stephen Jen, chief economist at Blue Gold Capital and a former IMF official, said Greece, Ireland and Portugal are already "insolvent". Refusal to face up to reality draws out agony, with a "cancerous" effect on the whole eurozone.

28 generations have shared in developing this spectacularly lush environment that not only feeds the family, but provides all the medicinal herbs and plants they need. Imagine growing up in an environment where you just need to walk outside the door and there is all the sustenance you will ever need -- literally provided by your ancestors! This is an inspiring story that we can be thinking about as we take steps to convert our backyards, front yards and even windowsills into food producing spaces.

Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to [email protected]. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."

"Portuguese yields may be rising to levels that force the nation to follow Greece and Ireland in requesting a bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to avert default.

The nation plans a 10-year sale tomorrow, the first bond auction by any of the euro region’s most indebted countries this year. Its existing 10-year debt has yielded more than 7 percent in 10 of the past 62 days, according to Bloomberg data. Greece needed a rescue within 17 days of its 10-year yield breaching 7 percent on April 6, while Ireland lasted less than a month after it cracked that level in October."

"The $90 million deficit, San Jose's 10th in a row, could cost nearly 650 employees their jobs based on an average employee cost of $139,905. The actual number of layoffs would depend on unions' willingness to accept pay and benefit cuts to save jobs and the number of vacancies from retirements and resignations when the budget is finalized."

Nor has capital become more productive. From 1995 to 2004, $180 billion of upstream capital expenditure would deliver 1 million b/d of incremental oil, condensate and natural gas liquids production. From 2005, when the oil supply stalled, through year-end 2010, producing the same volume required $1.07 trillion, a six-fold increase — even after allowing for the $100 billion the Saudis invested in their spare, and currently idle, capacity.

Thus, increasing the oil supply now requires either six times as much money, or technology six times more productive, than it did a decade ago. This suggests that neither a modest increase in capital spending nor modest technological improvement will create additional supply. There is not a bigger oil resource available for just slightly more investment or marginal technology improvement. In the case of oil, “halfway through” does actually imply peak oil. Put another way, Hubbert‘s production curve is accompanied by Hubbert‘s cost curve. The cost of extraction does increase, and it is likely to increase at an increasing pace.

Hat tip to Sharon Astyk for her comments and pointing out the originating article.

I know this is what Chris has been telling us about the cost of extracting oil, but it really drives the point home when you see the numbers.

Heavy rain, releases from the giant Wivenhoe Dam and high tides are set to combine to cause major flood peaks in the cities.

The number of missing people has been revised upwards to 78, and there are serious concerns for 18 of those people.

The weather bureau has lifted a severe weather warning for the region but the bureau's Brett Harrison says the general flood threat remains the same.

"All of the flood predictions were related to the water that was already on the ground," he said.

Authorities say thousands of properties could be flooded as the Bremer and Brisbane rivers hit record levels over the next two days.

The Brisbane River is set rise to 4.5 metres on Wednesday and could go higher than the 1974 floods that reached 5.45 metres.

The Bremer River at Ipswich is now expected to reach 22 metres on Wednesday morning - 1.5 metres above the 1974 levels.

Large parts of Brisbane are already affected by flooding. A number of shops in the CBD have been evacuated and the State Library has closed because of the extreme weather conditions.

A steady stream of debris is floating down the swollen Brisbane River, including boats ripped from their moorings by the force of the current, and a whole ferry pontoon.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says the scale of the looming disaster is constantly being reassessed.

"If we see these sorts of levels in the Brisbane River we would expect to see somewhere above 9,000 properties affected significantly and more than 30,000 other properties having some impact," she said.

Bank of China Ltd., one of the country's four major state-owned banks, has opened trading in the Chinese currency to customers in the U.S., representing a symbolic endorsement by Beijing of foreign trading in the yuan.

The decision is the latest move by China to allow the yuan, whose value is still tightly controlled by the government, to become an international currency that can be used for trade and investment. Analysts say allowing trading in the yuan, also known as the renminbi, is an early step by the Chinese government toward making its currency fully convertible into dollars and other currencies.

"We're preparing for the day when renminbi becomes fully convertible," Li Xiaojing, general manager of Bank of China's New York branch, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He said the bank's goal is to become "the renminbi clearing center in America."

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Democratic state lawmakers in Illinois are scrambling to pass massive personal and corporate income tax hikes Tuesday to bring their state budget back from the fiscal abyss.

Timing is critical because it will be much harder to raise taxes after Republicans take over more seats on Wednesday. The state GOP is firmly opposed to hiking taxes, preferring instead to cut spending.

While the proposal is still in flux, it contains a mix of tax increases and new borrowing, with a nod to keeping spending under control. Democrats are trying to garner more support for the measure by scaling back the tax spike to 66%, down from an initial proposal of 75%.

The latest plan under discussion calls for:

Temporarily raising the personal income tax rate to 5%, from 3%.

Temporarily hiking corporate income taxes to 8%, from 4.8%.

Providing a property tax rebate of $325, rather than an income tax credit of 5% of property tax.

Imposing a moratorium on new programs with spending growth capped at 1% per year, with the exception of increased school aid of more than $700 million.